Baldur’s Gate 3 really is a triumph of game design, and a masterclass in how to give control to the player, without making it feel like they are heading down a predetermined path regardless of their choices. It’s one of those rare times where you should really believe the hype, because it's flipping awesome.

You’ll have an absolute blast with Nightmare Reaper - at least for the first couple of hours. The retro style is fun but original and there’s some serious addiction found in the whole 'what weapon will I get to play with this time' feel.

We had a deep love for Solace State. It didn’t dumb itself down. It invited us into the inner circle of an activist group and expected us to sort through its many threads. Would we be violent, political or organise the masses? No choice is easy, no consequence is expected. To enjoy it, all you need to do is understand that this is very much a visual novel, lacking in anything that looks like gameplay.

Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengeance of the Slayer is one of those games in which the creative choices should be applauded; at times, it feels genius. But the gameplay does get a bit tiresome after a while and the lack of direction is frustrating.

From Space comes together well; in fact, it is one of the better twin stick shooters I’ve played. Playing solo is okay, but it really comes alive with a group of players, whether friends or strangers. What have you got to lose - apart from a few hours of your life?

If I had one complaint it would be that a bit of freedom on the camera would have been nice, but mostly there is little to complain about in terms of how Dungeons 4 plays.

Whether it has long term appeal is up for debate, but Barton Lynch Pro Surfing is quite probably the best surfing game money can currently buy.

If you like a good sokoban puzzle game, then Shivering Stone does it all with a nice snowy theme brushed on top. It doesn’t go out of the way to change up the formula, and sometimes it will leave you frustrated if you try to deviate, but it does what it sets out to do. It is cheap, cheerful, basic and pretty.

Gray Dawn will happily immerse you into a good story that mixes many different styles. If you’re a fan of exploration-type games, this will be right up your street. The visuals are lovely, helped along by some stand-out scenes that are original and affecting.

Cluedo has never been a fantastic fit for console, and this version only underlines that fact. Fanatics won’t regret a purchase, but we’d advise anyone else that they Cluedon’t.

Jinshin does enough to be worthy of a recommendation. The setting is good, the story keeps you guessing, and the new features that it brings in are interesting enough. If you like a JRPG, then this is an easy sell, but if you are looking for a way into the KEMCO universe, this is as good a place as any to start.

Steel Assault is a reminder of gaming’s past, and this brings back both good and bad memories. Expect to have a decent little time while you are in there, but Steel Assault is not something you’ll particularly want to take in over and over again. For a retro hit though, it does the job.

Super Trunko Go is a decent stab at a twin stick shooter, with some “interesting” mechanics. There is a real challenge here, and while it isn’t the biggest game in the world, it isn’t a pushover. If you fancy a twin stick shooter with a slight difference, then give Super Trunko Go a try.

Wordsweeper by POWGI is another good entry. Combining two previously uncombinable games - crosswords and minesweeper - together, it creates a unique experience that works very well.

Perhaps it won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, but for gamers looking to take a trip down memory lane, METRO QUESTER is a nice departure from the usual KEMCO style. As a whole, it just works.

If you like challenge and can push through the constant game over screens, then UltraGoodness may not quite deserve that ‘Ultra’ prefix, but it’s still fine. UltraGoodEnough?

Hell Well might be a little too minimalist for some tower defence fans. But buy into its stripped down approach, and this is one of the cleverest and most addictive tower defence games that we’ve played in recent memory. Hell yes.

Everdream Valley is a pleasant enough addition to the ever-increasing roster of farming sims on Xbox and the dream feature is an attempt at setting it apart from other similar titles.

Dune: Spice Wars is a satisfying 4X game, but it is not without its issues. The controls are the only real stumbling block, but the biggest problem I have is in the sheer complexity of the systems

You get fifteen minutes of on-rails shooting where you don’t get to move or even aim - not really. Green Soldiers Heroes does all of this for you, whether you like it or not, leaving you to hold RT and watch as enemy life bars deplete.

Vampire Survivors: Emergency Meeting continues the high quality, low cost business model that poncle have made their own - it is hard to think of any other game that gives so much bang per buck. While a single new stage may not sound like much, it is so big and involved that you will not feel short changed. Throw in the need to learn how to use the new weapons to your advantage and you can be sure that the Vampire Survivors addiction will kick in again with Emergency Meeting.

A sim-game that comes with arcade elements, you should have some fun with Emergency Call: The Attack Squad

Down a double espresso as you will need to be on high alert with Pixel Cafe. The gameplay is a lot of fun if you can find the rhythm-like gameplay within, but it does get repetitive over time regardless. The visual novel element is also welcome to help drive you on, so long as you are invested in Pixel herself.

When twin-stick roguelikes are common as muck on Xbox, Bestial Reception needed to do something spectacular to stand out. But instead it’s headed the other way: it’s doing everything you might expect, nothing more.

The ambition of Criminal Expert is high and I love a lot of what it tries to do in terms of mixing FMV with actual detective-styled gameplay. The narrative is intriguing and the dialogue effective. But the restrictions it puts on the tasks in hand, along with the ‘three strikes and you're out’ pressure are not good.

Take part in the nostalgia and unearth a forgotten treasure; but have no illusions - there is a slow, cumbersome reason why Clockwork Aquario never made it into our arcades.

We don’t have the experience of the original Pocky & Rocky, so we’re saying this as first-timers: Pocky & Rocky Reshrined is a gorgeous bastard. It was unabashedly mean to us, and required a complete rewiring of our twin-stick shooter sensibilities, but once we managed to ride this bucking bronco, we enjoyed the hell out of it.

We didn’t have a bad time playing Ballotron Coolbox. While it’s more of the same, it’s an unfussy ‘more of the same’, with levels that can be beaten by giving the cue ball a huge amount of welly and watching the ricochets.

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is not a bad game by any means, but once discovering the stunning vistas wears thin, you won’t find much substantial meat to chew on in those forests.

For a brainless hour or so, M.A.D. Cows might be worth your cash. But you deserve better. There are better cuts of beef out there.

Our problem with Motesolo: No Girlfriend Since Birth is that we have already played the more satisfying - but still similar - Five Dates and Ten Dates. We felt like we had a say on those encounters, and they were with people we actually wanted to spend time with. We’d much rather go on Fifteen Dates than another one with Kimo. Sorry, buddy, it’s pretty glaring why you’ve had no girlfriends since birth.

There’s no doubting that Ominous Tales - The Forsaken Isles is an inferior example of the hidden object genre. Very little is up to par: the art, the puzzles and the logic are all a bit skew-whiff. We found the enthusiasm to finish it, but we were thinking longingly about the hidden object games of Artifex Mundi as we did it. Only for the most hardcore of hidden object fans.

There’s no doubt in our mind that, as a one-developer game, Aztec Tiki Talisman is an achievement. But if we could choose one other person to help out, we would have chosen a QA tester.

Aery – Calm Mind 4 is about the twelfth regurgitation too far. The same levels arrive in the same arrangements, and we’re meant to pay for the privilege. When visual issues and game-breaking bugs reduce the playable levels from eleven down to eight, it’s hard to make a case for anyone to pay for it.

Ravva and the Phantom Library is a significant step forward from the first game. And if you haven’t played Ravva and the Cyclops Curse, then know that this is a puzzle-platformer with substance. It has its fiddly moments, but it’s also got a knack for creating dense, sprawling levels with a fun-to-figure-out boss at the end.

If you have a fondness for retro platformers like Bubble Bobble, and you sense that you’d be more patient with some old-school game mechanics, then Jack Dragon and the Stone of Peace has been made especially for you. Drop down the £3.29 and treat yourself. Everyone else can pass this one by, and that’s fine.

We admire Alpha Particle. It’s a product of love, created by people who truly believed in their vision. You can see the passion for the world, story, rulesets and progression structure in every minute detail. But in our case, all that effort created a wall, not a game. We bounced off it more than we tinkered with it.

If you like Turok and want to finish the trilogy, then Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Remastered is the only game in town. But for anyone else, there are better games to play.

The destruction technology is industry-leading, the gunplay is strong and the graphics are stunning. However, the gameplay loop, while quite fun, is a bit limited in its current state. With time, I suspect THE FINALS will blossom into an upper echelon first person shooter.

Trinity Fusion is a good game with a steep learning curve and instinctive combat that is enjoyable to get involved in. No two runs are the same, the difficulty is hard, yet if I had one complaint it would be that the damage you take feels wrong.

As long as you stick to the single player, Jagged Alliance 3 is very good indeed. The controls are nicely optimised for console, the story is interesting and forging a team out of a bunch of seemingly disparate personalities is a lot of fun. With a deep levelling and crafting system to get to grips with, this is one of the better strategy games of the year.

Perhaps it could do with a few more cases and a little longer in terms of gameplay hours, but DETECTIVE: Stella Porta Case is worth spending time with.

If you have the patience of a saint and some mean platforming skills, then Raccoo Venture may be for you. But if you question your ability in either of those areas, then we warn you: Raccoo Venture can feel like rooting around in the trash, and there’s an awful lot of sharp glass in there.

Cotton games are known for being charming and precise, but Panorama Cotton feels ugly and unwieldy. It’s not the most ideal of trades. ININ Games have done a sterling job of porting this curio, but we warn you: as a modern gamer, it’s a bumpy ride.

Argonauts Agency 1: Golden Fleece sold us on a bright new future for the 8floor series. Things looked golden indeed. Argonauts Agency 2: Pandora’s Box swallows that all up and reveals that the future might be darker, full of old bugs and the same repeated experiences.

This is not one of Artifex Mundi’s best: it’s a meandering, weirdly earnest story, and the hidden object puzzles are more fiddly than they needed to be. We weren’t exactly ‘bah humbug’ while playing Yuletide Legends: Who Framed Santa Claus?, but we were at least a little crotchety.

By all means give Hirilun a crack if you’re a speedrunning fan, if you are happy to navigate the same area over and over in hope of shaving some seconds. But the highs of Mirror’s Edge this is not.

As a single expansion to the game, this little WINGSPAN: Oceania Expansion package has everything that a budding Chris Packham could want. Frankly, we were smitten.

As an easy-to-handle entry to the city building scene, it's hard to fault Kingdoms and Castles too much. It may be limited in the very long term, but the opportunity to breathe life into a new kingdom as you get to the point where one feels exhausted allows for new strategies and tactics to come into play.

If you are in the market for a platformer that brings something new to the table, then I would hazard a guess that you have found it in Rising Dusk. It’s a charming game, and the new anti-coin mechanic just brings a little extra spice to proceedings.

A very good strategy game that covers both a great narrative and board-like gameplay, Rough Justice: ’84 is a bit of a stunner, especially visually with some of the best hand-drawn animation you would have seen.

I know I should be angry at Disney Dreamlight Valley. The decision to move from a paid experience to an even more paid experience is Ursula-like in its sheer evilness (worse, as Ursula sticks to her promises). I should be angry, but I’m only a few-thousand dreamlight away from affording a new area, and Rapunzel is soooo close to becoming a level 10 friend. There’s too much to be done. There’s no time to be angry.

If you are happy to play alone, then I can recommend NARUTO X BORUTO Ultimate Ninja STORM CONNECTIONS as the Ultimate Naruto game, with a lot of content and fighters to go at. But without a functioning online section, this seems like a missed opportunity.

There is a lot of personality in Have a Nice Death. The animation is fluid and the character and sound design are phenomenal. It is a challenging game that doesn’t forgive mistakes, so it won’t be fun for those looking for a casual game. But if you like a roguelike that will push you to the edge, Have a Nice Death is a welcome addition to your game library.

Little Goody Two Shoes is a wonderfully creative, and genuinely unsettling fairytale, in the truest sense. Despite a few bumps in the road, Elise’s journey is a foray into a fantasy world that doesn’t often have a happy ending, but is an enjoyable ride while it lasts.

Zomborg is a very worthy stab at a twin-stick shooter, and the challenge certainly becomes real on the later levels. If you fancy a go at the genre, this isn’t a bad place to start, and there are certainly worse games on the market.

There is a very good narrative found in Orten Was The Case with a great concept and a huge puzzle within a puzzle to solve. I loved the hand-drawn animation and the town of Orten itself, what with its strange and wonderful characters.

Forest Grove is a neat and interesting take on the detective genre. It is original, even though it borrows ideas, mostly as it takes elements but then works through things in its own unique way. Fans of story and whodunit mysteries will have a ball here, playing detective and unraveling a mystery.

Any excuse to return to Remnant II is a good excuse. And even though The Awakened King does commit a few of the same issues as the first game, it is a solid addition to an already excellent experience.

Cotton 100% is a classic cute shooter that still holds up, comparing well with the best of its peers. Sure, it’s not massively innovative or long, and there are enough slowdown issues to make it feel like we should mark it down to Cotton 50%. But what’s here is pure, retro shooty goodness, and we latch onto these kinds of experiences whenever we can.

Thanks to the visuals, storytelling, and sound, Life of Delta may well suck you in. Personally, I loved the exploration, the wandering around the environments and seeing the narrative progress. Unfortunately, some of the gameplay mechanics are a bit rough around the edges and it’s not always accurate enough.

Evil Nun: The Broken Mask is probably one of the better games in the whole survival horror genre, all thanks to its interesting setup, frightening main character, and some amazing visuals. But the gameplay mechanics and loop do feel a bit tired.

Bang-On Balls: Chronicles is a beautiful platformer that you will have a ball with. It provides some fantastic gameplay and exquisite ball-on-ball action. The humour is absolutely spot on and the various huge worlds are a delight to bounce around and explore.

Once it gets going, Low Story comes complete with some fun gameplay, a decent shooting mechanic and varied bosses. However it is in the little puzzle elements in which the inventiveness comes.

Yu Suzuki hasn’t lost his touch. Air Twister is clearly Space Harrier, but with a very modern taste for spectacle. For one or two playthroughs it’s a shoot ’em up Fantasia, just as much a treat for the ears as the eyes. The thing is, Air Twister wants to be more than that. It wants to be your go-to shooter for much longer, with more modes and skill trees than it could possibly need.

An amazing piece of world-building that is complemented with some superb visuals and audio work, Under the Waves will keep you captivated for some eight hours or so. And come the end, you may just be sad that it has finished.

A game that works okay, is good fun with a group of friends and capable of providing an interesting take on the Robin Hood myth, Gangs of Sherwood fills a gap. But I think the tone feels misguided and at times it all seems like it has been ripped from a previous generation of consoles.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 is a fun and enjoyable brawling-style game. Better than Smash Bros? No, but the gap is closer than ever, and that means this is the next best thing on the Xbox.

Should you be in the market for a strategy survival game, you could do a whole lot worse than focus some time on Wartales. If you have a group of people to play with, then jolly cooperation can be yours.

We implore you: read the myth of Sisyphus or snuggle up with the works of Camus instead. Heavy Burden is no way to brush up on either. It’s a mashup of some of the things we hate most in games - escort missions, first-person platforming and cruel failure states - with a half-hearted gesture towards philosophy. Praise Zeus that we only had to push this rock up the mountain once.

Rollerdrome is a unique idea that is, for the most part, executed brilliantly. Aside from a few ultra-specific quirks, traversal feels intuitive and looks ripped out of a stylish action movie. Challenges and high scores give the game ample replayability, and the campaign is addicting enough to complete in just one or two sittings.

With a little more polish Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader could have been a strong contender as a genre leader, but as it is, we have to pull back on that a bit. Yet still, if you like Warhammer or CRPGs, this is an easy sell.

So, Beat ’Em Up Archives (QUByte Classics) then. In conclusion, although the games still look good today, the gameplay has aged horribly. As a result it is all more frustrating than fun to play.

Pinball M does a lot of right things to win back the fanbase. New features, the promise of new tables, and a more traditional format of playing, avoiding the controversial Pinball Pass. Just remember, the M is for mature.

Within the category of ‘budget platformer’, NeonPowerUp! is almost unsurpassed. It’s big, it’s hard, and it’s clever. The triple-lock. 9Ratones should be immensely proud of what they’ve done here with the most limited of tools. £4.99 has never been easier to spend.

By choosing to be a battle royale, we can’t help but think that Headbangers Rhythm Royale attached some blinkers. It could have been a Jackbox rival with an audio flavour. Waggling our pigeon was undoubtedly fun (and juvenile), but like the rest of the game, the laughs were short-lived.

Timberman: The Big Adventure may be short enough to confuse you on first playthrough, but what little is here is sweet. It feels like a no-expense-spared remaster of a 16-bit platformer that never existed: by which we mean that it’s full of charm and some timeless level design.

In translating Virtual Families Cook Off: Chapter 1 Let’s Go Flippin’ to Xbox, only half the job has been done. The baking and cooking feels great with a controller in the hands, and the microtransactions have wisely been excised from this £8.39 release. But the grind and levels that feed it are all still here.

Our personal Game of the Year has returned with a whole new region, and it’s no afterthought. DREDGE - The Pale Reach is a contender for best region of the game, and it’s cutting no corners, with new fish, a new method of fishing, several new mechanics, some virtually game-breaking rewards and umpteen secrets.

If you fancy some fast-food Metroidvania action, then Runnyk is surprisingly digestible. If you want depth, innovation, challenge or something that makes you actually think, then you might want to get your kicks elsewhere.

Pipe Dream has the barest whisper of a puzzle-platforming idea, and only gets ten minutes into exploring it. We wondered if we were missing something. Did we take a wrong turn? Did we download a demo and not the game? No, it really is a sliver, a crumb of a game - one that can’t even justify its low £4.19 price tag.

There’s a magical alchemy in the bake that means Born of Bread rises above the issues. It should be weighed down by them, but, somehow, it emerges as a light, fluffy RPG all the same.

Chessarama won’t make you better at chess, but it may help you to get into the mindset needed to be a Grandmaster. It isn’t afraid to try something a bit different, with puzzles that are unique and intriguing. They don’t all work effectively, but you have to admire the attempt.

Super Crazy Rhythm Castle is wacky, inventive and a whole lot of fun. If you can see through the asking price, you’ll be tapping away in no time.

For fans of pinball, Smoots Pinball is a definite avoid. Even for younger gamers, arguably who the game is really pitched at, there still isn’t really much to recommend here.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name may be a shorter and smaller Like a Dragon game, but it doesn’t skimp on quality. This ‘greatest hits’ approach of including many fan favourite side activities from over the years only further highlights what makes Like a Dragon such a treasured franchise.

Super Box Delivery: Beyond the Horizon is a slickly presented, pulse-pounding little game that costs barely more than a Royal Mail small parcel. What is here is polished and fun, and the sparseness won’t matter as much to you.

Crashy Laps very much does what it says on the tin, chucking you into an old school racer that is intent on crashing. Poor visuals, terrible audio and a 'feel’ that is nothing short of unique fail to help this racer speed away from the grid, let alone be able to compete for podiums.

The Traveler’s Path doesn’t have the gumption to let you fail. You’re served up puzzle after puzzle that have multiple solutions and none of them are difficult to find. We waited, hoping for a puzzle that would truly confound us, but it never came. So, while we sprinted to the end, holding our 2000G aloft like a Triforce, we had that nagging feeling that we hadn’t earned it.

If you enjoyed the vibes found in Urban Flow but need a railway take on matters, you’d do well to check out Train Traffic Manager. Whilst we’d have liked to see the Endless Mode opened up from the get-go, playing through the Campaign stages on offer delivers a decently fun puzzling time, ensuring there’s a reason to keep coming back, as you go working through them.

MeteoHeroes Saving Planet Earth is a copycat kids’ platformer that has more than a passing love for the PAW Patrol and PJ Masks games. When it adds anything new to that formula it only ends up diminishing the original. Sure, the ‘save the planet’ message is laudable, but we struggle to find anything else that makes MeteoHeroes Saving Planet Earth stand out.

The Fast Journey didn’t feel like a complete game. It felt like a stepping stone for a dev who will probably go onto better things in the future. For now, you can consider this as the barest scrap of a game, and move on (fast).

I enjoyed my time revisiting Providence Oaks in Lake: Season's Greetings. The loveable characters, heartwarming story and classic Christmas tone make this well worth a pick-up over the Holiday season, even if some technical qualms hold it back from tree-topping star status.

If you’re on Team Artifex Mundi and are hungry for another hidden-object experience, then The Myth Seekers 2: The Sunken City doesn’t do much to disappoint. It’s dull and bland, but it does all the puzzling stuff well and with minimal fuss. But if you’re a tad more discerning or are looking for a decent entry point to the masses of similar games - well, this is about the last game we’d recommend to begin with.

As a one-shot, Excessive Trim is incredible fun. You will go from confused to dumbstruck in roughly thirty minutes. But, like the alien in the game, it only functions in short, sharp bursts. Once you start asking what’s next, what will keep you playing Excessive Trim, then it shrugs and holds its empty hands out wide.

Pier of the Unknown did something important. It gave me a reason to return to Cassette Beasts, to fill out that monster catalogue and hike up my levels.

Grace of Letoile is very much another KEMCO RPG. There isn’t anything ground-breaking here, but the story is better than most. It is just a shame that things are hidden away, there are too many random encounters and the slow combat means that the excitement of the narrative is somewhat diluted.

We didn’t dislike our time with Evil Diary: while it’s some throwaway monster-killing, it’s also frustration free. If this holiday period is a little too jolly and colourful for you, then say ‘bah humbug’ with Evil Diary.